The Laramie Project (Essay Sample)

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The Laramie Project
In October of the year 1998, on the outskirts of Laramie, Wyoming a 21 year old student of the University of Wyoming by the name Shepard Matthew was brutally attacked, robbed and beaten beyond recognition one night. He was then tied to a cattle fence and was left to die. \Hours later he was discovered by a good Samaritan in form of a biker who found it quite difficult to believe that it was actually a human being who was tied to the fence. The police and an ambulance were sent to the scene and Matthew was taken to the hospital. The injuries inflicted on him were beyond repair. In the hospital, he never regained consciousness and he died several days later due to the massive head injuries that were inflicted on him. Two local young men were arrested and charged with his murder.
After this murder was highlighted, the town of Laramie was put on the national spotlight depicting the harsh reality of discrimination, violence and prejudice that the LGBT group (Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders) usually go through in the traditional as well as the modern society. Afterwards, Moisés Kaufman led a group of people to Laramie. Together with this group which majorly consisted of Tectonic Theater Project they utilized the popular documentary theatre techniques, reports from various news channels and interviews as well. It is at this time that Laramie project was born. According to Tectonic Theater project’s website, there has been slightly more than 29 million people who have viewed the Laramie Project.
The play was based on more than 300 interviews with approximately 150 residents of Laramie. There was also the involvement of journal entries from New York based members of Tectonic Theater Project and Moisés Kaufman. This group’s aim was to reflect and capture the reactions, reflections and emotions of the crime and the results of the interviews that they carried out among the individuals who experienced or were related to the crime. The play takes the structure of a documentary in the sense that it tries to bring to mind the occurrences of that fateful night. There is a film adaptation of the Laramie Project play that was opened in 2002 at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.
From this whole event a variety of questions are likely to pop up. For instance, was this a hate crime with some form of community backing? Or was it the usual random robbery and assault? Whatever the case, the main objective of the author was to exhaustively find out the various issues that surrounded class, religion, economics, education, homosexuality and the pre-modern lifestyles through the feedback obtained from the residents in regard to that incident.
The kind of violence and torture that was inflicted on Matthew Shepard has been considered by many people as a hate crime. A hate crime is generally understood as any form or acts of criminality that are viewed as being motivated by discrimination against one or more groups of the society. Hate crimes consists of acts such as bullying, physical assaults, harassment, damage to property, verbal insults or graffiti that offends a particular group. In the Laramie project, the perpetrators of this crime went beyond borders and assaulted Matthew resulting to his death. Evidences and other forms of information that were collected from this case have all led to a belief that Matthew was indeed assaulted due to his sexuality. In the play however, we are made aware that the charged criminals, Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney were not fully aware of the identity of the person they attacked. A question arises of how they came to know that Matthew was actually a gay person?
At this point there is likelihood that the community in which Matthew lived in already had a particular ideology on the nature of his personality although Matthew himself boasted of being a gay. In most societies, gays have been regarded as outcasts and a few or no members of a society would want any form of association with members of this LGBT group. Matthew already knew this position of his community in regard to his sexuality. In his early ages, Matthew had depicted behaviors and performances that suggested his sexual orientation. Later on in his life is when he started revealing his sexuality to people that were around him. This kind of behavior is what did not go well with a majority of the community members. A majority of community members would expect a gay to be secluded and with probably minimal interactions with the outside world. Due to the perceived notion of the society the perpetrators did what they thought was in the best interest of the society. Irrespective of this, no form of crime should warrant for death. A section of the community seemed to support what befell Matthew as will be explained in this paper.
Matthew’s death can be considered as a crime that was basically fuelled by hate, but greatly contributed by gender performance. Gender performance refers to the various ways that individuals portray their personal gender identities. These gender identities are obtained as an individual is brought up by his/her parents or guardians and the surrounding community. All individuals irrespective of their gender orientation should never be discriminated in any way.
In The Laramie project, there is an understanding whereby the behaviors, activities and actions of Matthew strongly show that he was undoubtedly homosexual. In the play, Matthew’s taxi driver, O’ Connor, fondly remembers him. He remembers his outspoken nature through which he revealed to him as being gay. According to Kaufman (19), he once told the driver "I want you to know, I am gay and we are going to a gay bar." This shows Matthew’s self-sufficience and willingness to let the society be aware and to understand his sexual orientation. He was neither ashamed nor intimidated. On the other hand, the society was seemingly not willing to accept Matthew as he was despite his acceptance to be referred to as a gay. According to one of Matthew’s friends, Romaine Patterson, who was interviewed by Tectonic Theater Project, Matthew had even joined one of the gay and lesbians clubs in his university approximately one week before he was killed (Kaufman 20). The community’s treatment towards Matthew and the few unmentioned gay community members might be considered as one of the reasons that he was murdered.
Matthew’s boldness is one attribute that is admirable and should be promoted among the members of any particular gay community. He was willing to go great lengths to ensure that the community was aware of his sexual orientation and he was not ashamed of it. These are among the major challenges faced by the larger LGBT group in the society today. On a positive note, the acceptance of gays by any given society promotes positive outcomes in human attributes such as general health wellbeing, self esteem and mental health as well. If accepted, gays are likely to experience decreased incidences of drug and substance abuse, depression and any suicidal behaviors or thoughts. This in turn contributes to the moral uprightness of a society.
The problem with the culture of modern society is that individuals have adopted and heeded instructions from law practitioners, mental health experts and a group of religious leaders who have continually advocated for "gay panic" as a rationale for committing murder. Conflict between religion and the LGBT group has been savoring over the years. In the play for instance, there is an evident hatred shown towards the gay community by the religious leaders. Reverend Fred Phelps is a man of God who attended the funeral of Matthew together with a group of his stanch followers. In the funeral, Fred’s group members are seen as worshipping and praising their god who they supposedly argue that he hates homosexuals. They also claim that this god is the one responsible for condemning Matthew to burn in hell. This form of ideology creates a form of intolerance that exists among the church and the LGBT community. With this kind of discrimination it becomes difficult for the gays to attend or associate themselves with religious functions or any other form of religious activities. Religious organizations on the other hand also do not want to be associated with gays. This creates a rift between these two factions. The killing of Matthew can be considered as just but another expression of a disease that is ailing most religious organizations in the world. If a religion can promote and praise the death of an individual due to his sexual orientation then the church disobeys its moral obligatio...